Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Anything to do with the EU seems to be attended with an unusual amount of jargon. I listened carefully to the Minister's presentation but I do not know how much wiser I am except that I now know the EU social protection Ministers will be visiting Ireland in February. Regarding the pension portability issue, the Minister will be aware that there is no common framework to make pensions portable in the EU. Herculean efforts have been made to put a directive together, so far without success. The last directive up for negotiation would have given a fair amount of flexibility to individual member states which seems a bit of a contradiction. The Minister stated she is hoping to make progress on this during Ireland's EU Presidency. How realistic is that? I do not believe there is a hope in hell that we will have this directive anytime soon, let alone during Ireland's Presidency.

Last Monday I read about the European youth guarantee in The Irish Times so I did not have to come here today to hear about it. Officially, 30% of the population under the age of 25 cannot get a job. That grossly understates the case. A parliamentary question I put down to the Taoiseach yesterday revealed that in the past 12 months alone, 76,000 people have left this country. That is over 200 a day, of whom I suspect most are young. The Minister claims any of these young people who cannot get a job will be guaranteed an education or a training place. What percentage will be accommodated by the training and education schemes available? What extra numbers will be involved? I suspect it will be quite substantial. How much is this going to cost? Has provision been made for it? I read a suggestion in Monday's Irish Times, which surprised me, that we expect the EU will pay for these programmes. Judging by the sort of figures floating around, that is most unlikely. According to the brief from the Department of Social Protection, over €500 million must be made in savings in the social welfare budget this year. How realistic is this proposal? How much is it going to cost and who will pay for it? How many people will benefit from it?

The Minister stated similar schemes have worked well in Austria and Germany where youth unemployment is low. I would respectfully suggest that youth unemployment is much lower in these countries for reasons other than the offer of a guarantee scheme like this. I recall a similar scheme in operation in the United Kingdom which has not been particularly successful. If this scheme becomes a reality here, how will it coincide with the Pathways to Work scheme? The pathways scheme involves the referral of jobseeker's allowance recipients to a case officer to incentivise them for getting back into the workplace. Will there be a separate stream for recipients under 25 who will fall under the guarantee programme?

I want more clarity on this as last Monday's announcement has created a good deal of hope and expectation, particularly among young people who are growing increasingly desperate. I want to ensure on their behalf that there is some substance to this guarantee.